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He moved toward the closed door and pushed it open.
The room was empty except for a single chair facing away from the door, toward a broken window. Tattered white curtains blew in the breeze. There was a man in the chair, Caleb realized.
“Dr. Campbell?”
No reply.
Caleb raised his gun and stepped around the front of the room. “Dr. Campbell?”
He stopped. It was Campbell in the chair, but his face was so bruised and swollen that he was almost unrecognizable.
He was dead.
Shit!
Caleb touched his neck to be sure. No pulse. He was still somewhat warm, meaning he’d probably been murdered in the past few hours.
A message from Bohdan.
A creak from the hallway. More than a message. A trap!
He raised his gun, but in the next instant a knife whistled across the room and buried itself in his shoulder. The force knocked him backward to the floor and his gun went flying.
A bearded man stepped into the room. Caleb recognized him from the international watch lists. Gabriel Dopple, international killer for hire. Just the type of high-priced thug Bohdan would employ. A heavyset man stepped in the room behind him. No one Caleb recognized, but he assumed it was just another murderous sleazebag. Both men were wearing black NEMESIS suits that hid them from thermal sensor scans.
Dopple turned toward his partner. “Take his gun, Vito.”
Vito picked up the gun.
Caleb nodded toward the knife in his shoulder. “Don’t you want your knife back?”
Dopple smiled. “I’ll leave it for now. It looks good where it is.”
Caleb glanced up at Campbell’s corpse. “This man was no threat to you. You didn’t have to kill him.”
“Orders. You know something about that, don’t you, Mr. Caleb? When you’re paid to do a job, the whys cease to matter.”
“Maybe to you, Dopple.”
Dopple raised his eyebrows. “Ah, I’m famous. You flatter me.”
Caleb pulled himself up to face Dopple. “We both know every criminal gets his picture up in the post office. It makes you common, not special. Nothing to be proud of, believe me.”
Dopple’s face flushed with anger. “You’re alone. I was disappointed when I found that out. I’m sorry your friend Jane MacGuire didn’t choose to accompany you.”
“She wouldn’t bother. She has nothing to do with this.”
“My employer begs to differ.”
Caleb said softly, “Leave her out of it.”
“Not possible. We’ve been offered just as much to take care of her as you. An example must be made.” Dopple smiled. “Now we know that she’s with child, perhaps he’ll give us a bonus.”
Caleb bared his teeth. “Enough.”
Dopple crouched beside him and turned the knife in his wound.
Caleb gritted his teeth but never broke eye contact with Dopple.
